Santa Comes Early

The boys and I stopped by the local mall yesterday. We walked into the mall at the food court, and as we made our way through to the central hub, I noticed they already had some Christmas decorations up. Geez, I thought, it’s barely into November.

It seems like it only recently started, in the past few years, with stores and malls setting up things for Christmas before Thanksgiving. I noticed Target had a Christmas section (two aisles) even before Halloween. This is wrong. This should not be happening. Christmas should not start until after Thanksgiving.

Anyway, as we walked into the central hub of the mall, we walked smack into the Santa Claus area. Santa was there, next to the big tree. The thought had not even crossed my mind that Santa might already be in the mall. Had I thought we might run into the big guy, I would have mentioned it to my boys. I might even have come into the mall at the store we needed rather than walk through the main area.

Calgrit7 said, “I don’t think he’s the real Santa.” Calfgrit4 didn’t pay the red suit any mind at all. There was not the usual long line of kids and parents waiting to meet him. There was not the feeling of the holiday in the air. (The temperature outside was in the 70s!)

For my boys, seeing Santa like this felt so fake and unreal. It felt more like seeing someone in a late Halloween costume than seeing the real jolly old elf.

For me, it felt like an ambush. Bumping into Saint Nick three weeks before you’d normally expect him just isn’t helpful for parents. We want seeing Santa to be a special, magical moment. We want to warn the boys that we’ll see him — from afar at first, and then we’ll get closer if they want.

Now, though I feel like the moment was mildly ruined. This kind of thing does not endear me to the mall, at all. It’s actually annoying. It makes me not want to go back to the mall until after Thanksgiving — when Christmas is really supposed to start. I definitely won’t take the boys back until December.

Bullgrit